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In the past, a console war was fought with schoolyard brawls, rhyming slurs, and the ridiculous commercials about “blast processing” and “Nintendon’t.” There were also the exclusives, which even today have caused many a child to vacillate at the register, clearly unsure which system deserves the holiday money he clutches in his grubby, crayon-stained hands. With the extensive capabilities of our modern console hardware, the question continues to be less one of hardware and more a matter of what experience the console’s creator can provide for the gaming public. Enter Microsoft’s exclusivity policy. In a recent interview, European Xbox boss Chris Lewis confirmed that this policy exists, and that it prevents developers from releasing content on the Xbox 360, whether through retail or the Xbox Live Arcade, unless that content is either temporarily/permanently exclusive to the system or released at the same time as it is on other hardware. Furthermore, the policy demands what it calls “parity on-disc,” meaning that console specific content for other systems must be either met with similar exclusive content in the 360’s version or be relegated to a download code (as was the case with L.A. Noire and Mafia II; Microsoft apparently made an exception for Mortal Kombat, with its PS3 exclusive Kratos content, which was on-disc). 
By Shelby Reiches |